Karin Bablok

Curriculum Vitae

Karin Bablok, born 1964 in Germany, is an international award-winning ceramicist who is a member of the International Academy of Ceramics (IAC). She has worked from Hamburg since 2005 and has guest lectured in both South Korea and Germany.
Her sculptures, often porcelain vases painted with black basalt glaze, are characterised by a mix of free expression and geometric precision.
Inspired by Bauhaus, Macintosh and Asian woodworks, these unique works explore the relationship between indoor and outdoor space.

Inspiration

She creates her forms on the turntable, cuts them into pieces, and reassembles them to achieve complex curves and edges.
Working with porcelain, which she describes as sensitive and challenging, is a process of struggle and triumph.
Her creations have grown larger and more complex over time, often combining into ensembles.
She fires her work in a gas oven under reduction, which requires precision and experience.
Karin Bablok also paints on paper and her work can be found in prestigious international collections.

Technique

Working with porcelain is at the heart of Karin Bablok’s artistic process. For more than 25 years, she has used this material exclusively, as it provides her ideal canvas for painting with black basalt glaze.
Her process begins on the turntable. When the shapes are leather hard, she often cuts them into pieces and reassembles them to create unique curves and edges.
Over time, she has refined her techniques and made her creations more complex, both in size and composition. Some sculptures contain partitions or are combined in ensembles.
The baking process takes place in a gas oven, under reduction.

About her material, she says: ‘Porcelain is sensitive. It wants to be pampered and cared for as you turn, dry and fire the work. I play with porcelain. The small sculptures keep their distance from me, with the big ones I melt together. I oversee the white gold and not infrequently I lose. Then it cracks or collapses. But, what joy when I win, what relief when the firing shows a successful result.’